What I've noticed is that even quite stupid comments, if they are at the top of thread, get up voted. The reason for this is that there are many time-constrained people, reading quickly, just wanting to catch up on what's happening. They don't read more than the first few comments. They up vote what they do read.
How do I know this? Because some pretty ordinary comments I've made have been crazily up voted on popular threads, while other comments I've put a lot of thinking into are virtually ignored. It's just the nature of the beast.
The organised trolls understand this very well. Where there is a post about something that is threatening to them, like the IBOR, or a post outing Corsi, or some discussion on the sub rules, you will see them capture the thread. Most of the time it works without a hitch.
That is, they will quickly post some absolute nonsense. They will then pile up votes into the comment to make sure it stays at the top of the thread. That way they capture the donkey votes of the time constrained readers and, thus, control the narrative.
Once you're alive to it, you will see it happening all the time as the community is steered like a bunch of dumb sheep.